Don’t think you can see the highlights of Saint Petersburg in a week. We barely scratched the surface, and after a week our list of things we wanted to see and do was still longer than what we actually managed to see and do.
I guess I’ll start with the riding to get into the city. The outer suburbs like Pushkin and Petergof are mostly connected with auto-centric development, somewhat miserable for cyclists. However, after riding about 12-15km east from Petergof, we arrived in more dense urbanization. It was still another ~20km into the city center, but the riding was surprisingly easy and pleasant considering the size of the city. Compared to other large cities I’ve pedaled in I’d rate Saint Petersburg favorably, above Tokyo, Mexico City, Cairo, İstanbul, Los Angeles, Bangkok, but not (yet?) up to the standards of Seoul, Madrid, or Fukuoka. Since I’m here comparing the ease and joy of bicycling in large cities, my experience in Saint Petersburg was on par with Manila and Barcelona.
Some Asian stir fry out in these residential blocks powered us the rest of the way to the city center.
